David Harrington is a senior majoring in Building Construction and Real Estate. He spent this past summer interning with Centennial Contracting. The have more than 30 offices nationwide and serves institutions, government agencies and the private industry. They are a member of the Bilfinger Engineering and Services Group and are the nation’s foremost practitioner of Job Order Contracting project delivery.
Q: What are some of the interesting things you were able to see/do while on the job?
Harrington: I was able to be a part of managing for team Job Site with another coworker at Centennial, my senior project manager and I had multiple schools with many different kinds of trades working in each. I was able to be self-sustaining and was given a large amount of responsibility. I was able to hire my own subcontractors for certain jobs and see the job throughout the summer.
Q: What are some of the biggest things you learned during your internship?
Harrington: One of the biggest things I learned throughout this summer internship was how to manage and facilitate with complexity and efficiency, which are both a priority. The main thing that I truly took away from this experience was their safety initiatives. They have an amazing safety program that is extremely proficient.
Q: How did being a MLSoC student prepare you for this internship?
Harrington: Construction is very different than most majors, I believe that Virginia Tech was able to prepare me to be a strong communicator as well as have the ability to learn as I go. No one ever graduates knowing everything about construction, but we do have the knowledge to be able to retain and understand situations in construction and learn from them. I could not have completed the tasks of intense delegation and project management without the strong communication skills that Virginia Tech has embedded within me.
I have no words for the gratitude I feel towards Virginia Tech and their program. They have opened hundreds of doors for me and have given me the confidence in this industry that I need. The ability for the professors to truly invest in their students is a rarity. The Building Construction program has truly perfected professors being able to take apart in the future of their students as well as ensure their capability when they are in the industry themselves.
